One of the highlights of third grade is our Simutown project. Simutown is a classroom program that simulates business, banking, and civic activities. Your child will have an opportunity to start and run a business and become involved in local government. The program has strong content components in math, social studies, economics, consumer skills, and language arts. This week, your child’s homework is to begin brainstorming ideas for their Simutown store. Each child will open up his/her own store and sell his/her own handmade products. The third graders will use “SimuBucks,” our town currency to buy and sell their products. Students in previous years have “sold” a variety of items such as drawings, plants, bead jewelry, hand drawn trading cards, self-created comic books, bookmarks, handmade wallets, flower pens, pet rocks, crafts made from recycled products, decorated pencil cups, and many, many more creative ideas. One year, a student even had a fortune telling booth!
Please review the Parent Letter and help your child think of idea that will cost you little or no money; help your child be resourceful (nowadays, Pinterest has become an excellent resource)! You can even view Mrs. Dyer´s Pinterest board for ideas. This is not a project that is intended to require any families to purchase store-bought items to sell. The students should be CREATIVE and IMAGINATIVE when deciding their store ideas. Encourage your child to think outside of the box as we cannot have duplicate ideas. Each child will need 60-80 items prepared ahead of time to sell. Please note that due to possible allergies, we cannot allow food products to be sold. More detailed information is to come.
If you have questions, feel free to email me (ericadyer@iusd.org). Simutown is an exciting project, and like the Living Museum, it is one of the most memorable events of third grade!